


Summer

by greenbucket



Series: Summer [1]
Category: Dark Matter - Michelle Paver
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Established Relationship, Fluff, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, Implied/Referenced Transphobia, M/M, Summer
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-12
Updated: 2017-03-12
Packaged: 2018-10-03 02:10:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,281
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10233338
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greenbucket/pseuds/greenbucket
Summary: Jack knew the paddling pool was bad news. He knows he’s just seen something he’s never going to be able to forget, something that will haunt him until the end of his days.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by [this post.](http://gusbalfour.tumblr.com/post/154932694875/ok-but-how-about-some-summer-millfour-gus)

Jack can feel himself staring at the paddling pool set up in the garden. He glances around, making sure he’s in the right place but that’s definitely the right back gate and nothing but the pool stands out as unusual. Isaak sniffs around by Jack’s leg and doesn’t bound over to the pool. If even Isaak isn’t approaching, Jack has a bad feeling about the pool.

“Jack, you made it!”

Gus in the summer is something else. His cotton button up is short-sleeved but collared and his shorts most likely tailored but covered with zipped pockets like an explorer and he’s still wearing the watch that has more dials and buttons than Jack can count. Overall it has the effect of making him look like an eager twelve-year-old dressed by his mother and, worse, it all probably costs more than Jack can bear to think about.

He’s also so relaxed with his skin golden from the sun (except for the strip of burnt pink on his nose) and his hair full of more sun-bleached streaks than Jack remembers and his smile all for Jack that Jack can feel himself flush and, more importantly, almost not begrudge Gus’ toes wriggling happily in his ugly flip flops.

Well, his smile nearly all for Jack. Isaak nudges Gus hopefully with his nose and Gus is immediately side-tracked, crouching down to scratch behind Isaak’s ears and allow a fair amount of face licking. Jack takes the moment to regain a little composure and wipe each sweaty hand carefully on the side of his own (relatively pocketless) shorts so that when Gus stands he can hand over the bowl of potato salad he’d brought smoothly.

“It’s potato salad,” Jack says redundantly. The bowl is just clingfilmed and it’s very apparent what’s inside and Jack can feel himself flushing all over again.

Gus grins down at the bowl, either deciding to politely ignore Jack’s embarrassment or not noticing in the first place. “Thanks, Jack. It looks delicious.”

Jack swallows hard, unsure how they’re going about this and unwilling to put his pride on the line when it’s Gus’ picnic and Gus’ garden and Gus’ friends probably in Gus’ flat waiting for the picnic to start.

Gus seems similarly unsure for a moment and looks back at the house before leaning in for a kiss. It’s quick, a little more than but closer to a peck than anything, but Jack can feel himself shiver and when he looks Gus has gone as pink as his nose, eyes a little wide and grip on the potato salad a little slack.

“So that was pretty grand, right?” Gus asks after a moment.

In hindsight, Jack doesn’t know how he made it through their confession-of-feelings make out session without combusting. That was a week ago. Has a week without seeing Gus really had that much affect?

“Yeah,” he agrees.

Gus smiles. “Just checking.”

Gus looks back at the house again, face twisting to something more wistful but he brushes it off when Isaak nudges him again impatiently and yips. They’d agreed that they wouldn’t let the others know about them just yet, especially since Gus had confessed that Algie’s initial response to learning Gus wasn’t as straight or as cis as Algie had thought had taken a long time for their friendship to recover from, but Jack knows Gus wishes it didn’t feel necessary.

Jack hopes he’ll be able to look Algie in the eye today without wanting to punch him. More than usual, that is.

“What’s the paddling pool for?” Jack asks Gus as they walk the path to the house, arms brushing.

“It’s for paddling, of course,” comes Algie’s voice from the left of them like some kind of ghost. Jack jumps so hard he nearly knocks Gus over and Gus swears loudly.

The man himself emerges from the bushes a moment later. He’s in a Hawaiian shirt and jean shorts, his skin already pink from the heat although it can barely be midday.

“Give a man some warning, can’t you?” Gus asks, his tone the familiar combination of irritation and ingrained fondness that it always is with Algie.

“Why the fuck were you in the bushes and jumping out on us like that?” Jack asks, a little more bluntly.

Algie takes a moment to pull a weed out of his boat shoes. “Just, um. Checking out the flowers that are growing back there. They look like tulips, pretty impressive growing in those kinds of conditions.”

Jack and Gus both blink at him. Sometimes Jack misses the safety of intense physics scholars compared to the intense biology-geography nerds he’s found himself falling in with. People in physics never climbed into the bushes in a Hawaiian shirt to check out some tulips.

Isaak jumps happily into the bushes to sniff around.

“Potato salad?” Algie says, taking the bowl from Gus’ hands like this is all normal. “Excellent.”

Hugo pokes his head out of the back door, surveying them all. “Eriksson was pulling your leg about the fairy circle, Al,” he says, half sympathetic and half amused. “Did you really go looking?”

Algie flushes, pink skin going pinker and freckles standing out starkly. He doesn’t reply, carrying the potato salad indoors with a haughty air as if it all doesn’t have to come back out for the picnic in a minute while Hugo and Teddy both start to rib him, laughing about the fairy tales and belief in the supernatural.

Eriksson is the quiet man living in the upstairs flat that Jack both respects and fears; he speaks rarely and most often it’s to have a little fun with Gus and Algie, both of which he’s recognised as still young enough to want to prove themselves to the point of gullibility. Jack resolves to be even more cautious next time their paths cross. 

Isaak makes his way out of the bushes, legs caked in mud that hadn’t managed to dry in the recent sunny spell. Gus makes a half-hearted grab for him but Isaak is too fast – he jumps up the back steps and into the house to no doubt put his muddy paws over the expensive upholstery.

Gus sighs. Jack can still hear the others teasing Algie so he thinks it’s safe enough to reach out and catch Gus’ hand. He gives it a squeeze even though he’s not that sorry about Isaak since half of the furniture is Algie’s too. Gus squeezes back, his skin warm and rough.

“It's been a bit of a morning. Do you want to go and lie on the grass and let the others get the blanket and food sorted?” Gus asks.

Jack pretends to think about it. “I suppose it wouldn’t hurt.”

* * *

 

Later, Jack feels sleepy with sun and food, his eyes closed against the sunlight as he lies back in the grass. He can feel little bugs against his legs and Gus’ hand just far away enough to be inconspicuous as he talks to Hugo but still close enough for Jack to feel his hair being played with.

“Stay awake for dessert, Jack,” Gus says and even his voice sounds softer than usual, or maybe Jack’s just noticing it in Gus talking to him.

“Yeah, I slaved all morning over this Eton mess,” Algie says loudly over the sound of him filling the paddling pool.

“You went to Harrow,” Jack retorts.

Hugo snorts and Algie throws back some kind of comeback but Jack already isn’t listening. It's not the kind of day for listening to Algie, though Jack will concede that sometimes he can be okay. 

“Has everyone been reapplying sun cream?” Teddy asks the group at large, checking his watch and already reaching for the bottle.

Teddy is a medical student but Jack can feel himself bristle at the assumption that he can’t manage his own skin care just because he never got a first from Cambridge. Who times applying sun cream?

Hugo moves over to get some cream for himself and Jack sits up slowly, letting his eyes adjust.

Isaak is lying in a patch of shade, tail wagging slightly as Algie’s cat approaches in stops and starts. Gus is fiddling with something in his lap but he looks up like he can feel Jack looking at him and he smiles automatically, like it’s a just a response to Jack being there.

For a moment, Jack just lets himself look back and feel the relief that he isn’t where he was this time last year: alone but for Isaak, coming to terms with being without a family member in all the world and his education completely off track and a bone-deep exhaustion that never seemed to fade. Some days it still feels like it won't but Gus understands and today Jack hasn’t felt so bad.

Hugo pokes him hard in the back with the sun cream. “Slather up.”

Jack automatically passes it on to Gus. He’s at no risk of sun burn and the UV rays can’t be that strong today.

Gus gives him a disappointed look. Jack takes the bottle back and squeezes some out into his hand, the cream cold enough against his skin to surprise him.

Gus clears his throat after Jack has covered his arms, legs and most of his face. “Uh,” he says with all the eloquence of a private school education. “Did you want me to do the back of your neck?”

Jack has been lying on his back all afternoon and thinks the risk that the patch of bare skin between his hair and the collar of his shirt being particularly prone to cancer is unlikely. Still, he nods. “Thanks,” he says and he isn’t sure why it sounds so gruff.

The feeling of Gus’ hand on the back of his neck a moment later explains that for him. As Gus makes sure there’s an even coverage, Jack feels bits of tension he didn’t even know he still felt slowly melt away. Gus’ hand under the collar of his shirt. Jack focuses very hard on the sight of Algie struggling to turn off the hose tap.

Jack returns the favour for Gus and holds his breath for what feels like minutes. When Gus turns to thank him, Jack impulsively squeezes out a little more cream and dabs it on Gus’ nose. The way Gus looks at him, Jack knows that if they weren’t in company Gus would have kissed him and he tries hard not to move with the rush of happiness, frustration, love, impatience, and a little disbelief that that thought brings.

There are loud shouts from Hugo and Teddy and Jack turns back to the group, only to wish he hadn’t: Algie has stripped off his shirt and shorts and is attempting to fling himself over into the pool in some imitation of a cannonball but into a pool a metre deep and two metres wide.

Jack can only watch in horror as he finally manages it, hitting the ground with a thud and half the water splashing over the edges. Teddy and Hugo both make theatrical wincing sounds as Gus laughs and Algie groans. He sits up a moment later.

“It’s nice and cool in here, I don’t care what you sweaty people think,” Algie says and proceeds to mime showering, shimmying and shaking and singing in his usual tone-deaf way.

Jack knew the paddling pool was bad news. He knows he’s just seen something he’s never going to be able to forget, something that will haunt him until the end of his days.

Gus is laughing so hard he’s gone silent, tears leaking out the corners of his eyes.

Jack finally manages to wrench his eyes entirely away from the horror of Algie all-but-naked and his eyes fall on the puddings that had been left at the edge of the picnic blanket mostly in shade. It’s not clear from a distance but it looks like a small colony of ants have taken over Algie’s Eton mess. Jack decides not to say anything just yet.

“Jack?”

Jack turns back to Gus, who still has tear tracks down his cheeks but seems to have gotten a hold of himself once more. He’s also holding out a daisy chain.

Jack blinks at it. “Happy one week anniversary?” he guesses, keeping his voice quiet even with the others distracted.

Gus looks charmed at the idea but shrugs. “I suppose.”

Jack takes the chain but doesn’t put it on. “I don’t have one for you.”

“It’s a daisy chain, Jack,” Gus says but he’s careful not to sound dismissive. He and Jack have had more than enough arguments about that. “Don’t worry about some equal exchange nonsense. We’ve got all the time in the world.”

Jack tries not to take that at deeper than face value as he lets the daisy chain drop and rest on his chest. It’s very neatly done and he wonders where Gus learned to make them. He’s about to ask when simultaneously Teddy discovers the ants and almost screams and Isaak decides to overcome his fear of water in time to jump in the paddling pool with Algie who almost screams too.

Gus manages to look both hard done by and like there's nowhere else he'd rather be as he squeezes Jack’s shoulder once and goes to help with Teddy and the Eton (Harrow) mess. Jack watches him go and thinks, not for the first time, that Isaak’s the best dog a person could ask for then goes to half-heartedly wrangle him out the pool.

On sunny days like this, time feels like it could stretch forever.

 _All the time in the world_. Jack likes the sound of that.


End file.
